BTS company is accused of stealing money, turning ARMY into an automatic teller machine

K-pop has grown into a large-scale industry and globally famous artists, supported by fans everywhere.

Entertainment companies are taking advantage of the heat of K-pop to expand their businesses, and Hybe, the group behind BTS, is the leader. However, Hybe's business is controversial. BTS fans are constantly criticizing the company for taking advantage of fans for profit. Recently, the fact that Hybe sold costumes designed by Jin - a member of BTS - at an expensive price once again pushed the controversy in the online community to the climax.

Specifically, Hybe recently released a collection designed by the members themselves. The first product to be released was a pajamas and neck pillow designed by member Jin. Hybe takes orders through the Weverse Shop. The prices of the products are controversial among fans. The pajama set and pillow are priced at 119,000 won ($99.70) and 69,000 won, respectively. Even Jin was surprised at the price after fans complained that the item was too expensive.

Jin wrote on the Weverse platform: "I asked to use high-quality materials for the pajamas, but I was also surprised at the price." Some fans couldn't afford the outfit at such a price, and they complained, asking the artist as well as the management company to adjust the price. Meanwhile, the products are all sold out.

Team leader RM - who is in isolation due to Covid-19 - also shared a post related to the outfit with crying emoticons. The male idol shared that he did not know about the price of the product. After Jin, RM's Artist-Made collection was released on January 3. The collection includes Bungeo-ppang wind chimes and jogger pants.

Army (name of BTS fan community) expressed anger at the entertainment company for its expansion and excessive fan abuse. Fans complain that the management company is trying to make money by selling goods at too high prices and exploiting a non-entertainment business that relies heavily on BTS's intellectual property.

"As an Army member, I understand the company wants to include Jin's efforts in the price. But since the nightwear is made of cotton, not even silk, I think the price of the product is only about 20,000 won. After seeing the items that were sold out, I felt disappointed," a 22-year-old BTS fan surnamed Lee told The Korea Herald.

This is not the first time a controversy has broken out in the BTS fan community because the management company sells things at too high a price. In November 2021, fans questioned the quality of the BTS Butter cassette they ordered. After receiving the cassette, fans realized it looked too different from the sample photos released by the company. After facing backlash, the management company offered to refund customers who purchased the cassette.

According to data compiled by the Seoul E-Commerce Center, a total of 271 consumer complaints related to Hybe's e-commerce platform were reported in October 2021. Types of complaints include delivery delays, returns, refunds, and defective products.

In 2021, Hybe announced they were entering non-music businesses, including webtoons, web novels and Korean learning materials featuring BTS... Following the above announcement, #BoycottHYBE became a trending topic on Twitter, through which fans expressed their disapproval and anger at Hybe's way of doing things.

On January 15, Hybe released the first volume of 7 Fates: CHAKHO - a webtoon (Korean web comic) made under the cooperation between BTS, Hybe and Naver - in 10 different countries.

"Hybe is looking for business success using BTS and fans. That makes me angry. Instead of defending the artists, Hybe is undermining their popularity. They constantly launching shoddy content and goods at high prices. This is not a good idea. Fans are not the company's vending machines," an expert surnamed Kim told The Korea newspaper. Heralds. One expert also emphasized the importance of engaging fans as companies look to expand their business. According to the expert, in order to receive a positive response from fans, the company needs to "clearly define ethical obligations". Otherwise, they will just drive away the fans.

Another information about BTS that is also attracting the attention of fans is that the "national group" has set a new record in the Japanese market. According to data from Oricon, as of today (January 6), the album "BTS, The Best" has achieved total sales of 1,002,000 copies in the Japanese market. This achievement helps BTS become the 14th foreign group to have an album surpassing 1 million copies in the Japanese market.

Released on June 16, 2021, "BTS, The Best" is a compilation of songs from many albums that BTS has released in Japan for 4 years, from 2017. "BTS, The Best" consists of 23 songs, including Japanese-language songs such as "Film Out" and "Your Eyes Tell", along with Japanese versions of several other hits. Within the first week of its release, the album "BTS, The Best" sold 782,000 copies, taking the number one spot on Oricon's weekly album chart. This is the highest first-week album sales by a male artist group in Japan ever. Last month, BTS also set another record in Japan, becoming the first foreign group to take the No. 1 spot on Oricon's year-end album chart, with sales of 993,000 copies in 2021.

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